Senior Mental Health Practitioner (CAMHS)

Closing date: 23 August 2026

Job summary
Do you want to make a difference to the mental health of children and young people and shape early intervention services?

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Trust has four established Young Minds Matter Mental Health Support Teams to work with schools. The aim of the team is to enable earlier and more effective mental health support for children, young people, their families and carers and increase resilience within school communities in managing mental health issues.

We are now expanding our successful team and seeking to recruit enthusiastic and committed mental health clinicians who enjoy working within multi agency settings to join the Mental Health Support Teams (MHST's).

The teams comprise of;

• Qualified CAMHS clinicians, Senior Mental Health Practitioners (SMHP - band 6)
• Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP - Band 4 / 5)
• Partner agencies aiming to work within a THRIVE model (including Talk Well and Early Help).
• School Mental Health Leads and wider school teams

Band 6 clinicians as Senior Mental Health Practitioners (SMHP) are a vital part of the service. We are seeking people who are flexible, adaptable to change and able to develop service delivery over time and in response to feedback.

It is a community-based post and therefore a valid UK driving licence plus the use of own transport for business purposes is essential.

Main duties of the job
The service welcomes those clinicians who may be currently working within other children's or adult mental health settings who have the necessary transferable clinical skills and experience.

Key elements of the role are:

• Work in partnership with schools to deliver consultation, assessment of children/young people and a range of mental health interventions within school settings. This will involve direct work with children/young people as well as offering specialist consultation, signposting and advice to professional networks, including teaching staff
• To provide support to other clinical colleagues
• Be responsible and ensure the effective care co-ordination, support and advice around clinical care provided within schools, especially including consideration of safeguarding and clinical risk issues
• Consult with teachers, school staff and mental health leads in schools to identify children and young people with emerging mental health needs, as part of a whole school approach. This may include supporting the EMHP's in delivering parenting support, group work, work with parents and psychoeducation within a school setting

Our service is very proud of the positive impact we make on the children and young people we work with and the encouraging feedback we receive as a service from school staff alongside children and families. We have a strong multi-disciplinary ethos in our clinical delivery and have robust clinical supervision structures.

About us
We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust. Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that: 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question. 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region. 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%. This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Details
Date posted: 23 July 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 6
Salary: £39,959 to £48,117 a year
per annum
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 327-26-576
Job locations: Countywide - Gloucestershire, Rikenel, Montpellier, Gloucestershire GL1 1LY United Kingdom

Job responsibilities
The successful applicant must have the necessary professional qualification, including current registration as outlined in the person specification. All YMM CAMHS Registered Practitioners hold a generic job description, however specialist skills and responsibilities related to working within this work role will be clearly reflected within a personalised job plan.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Person Specification
QUALIFICATIONS
Essential

• Professional Health or Social Care qualification: RNLD, RMHN, OT, MHSW
• Demonstrate current registration with a regulated professional body/ organisation: NMC, HCPC
• Evidence of formal post registration learning

Desirable

• Post graduate training within a relevant CYPS/CAMHS field or skill
• Profession specific additional qualifications (i.e. LD, nurse prescriber, DBT, CBT, AMHP, family therapy or systemic practice)
• Clinical supervisor qualification/training/ accreditation

LENGTH AND / OR NATURE OF EXPERIENCE
Essential

• Significant clinical experience of delivering evidence based/best practice clinical interventions within CAMHS or related services and/or adult mental health settings.
• Significant clinical experience of specialist care planning & case management/care coordination (including complex clinical risk assessment & management) within a mental health or learning disability setting.
• Experience of identifying and managing complex safeguarding concerns, including using formal processes to escalate safeguarding issues.
• Significant experience of providing personalised care planning to meet mental health or learning disabilities needs.
• Significant experience of delivering profession-based interventions within a clinical/therapeutic setting.

Desirable

• Experience of undertaking specialist Self Harm assessments of children and young people.
• Significant experience of CAMHS related multi-agency collaborative working and joint care planning.
• Experience of providing specialist CAMHS related consultation/training and advice to partner agencies.
• Experience of providing CAMHS related training to other practitioners and/or specialist consultation/ support to partner agencies.
• Experience of providing clinical supervision.
• Experience of collaboration working with other agencies including the voluntary sector.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).